Dr. Vanessa Tomas
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Team
Post Doctoral Fellows
Biography
Dr. Vanessa Tomas (she/her) is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Pediatrics with CanChild. She is a white settler with Portuguese roots, now living on Treaty 13 and Williams Treaty territory. She received her MSc (Rehabilitation Sciences) from McMaster University and PhD (Rehabilitation Sciences and Collaborative Program in Neurosciences) from University of Toronto. She is a CIHR-funded Health Systems Impact Fellow working with CanChild and two child/family health organizations: Children's Treatment Network (in Ontario) and Rehabilitation Centre for Children (in Manitoba). Together with an incredible team of researchers, clinicians, and Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, she is co-leading a program of work to explore equitable and culturally safer implementation of the 'F-words for Child Development'. Her research interests include implementation science in the field of child health and development, with a particular focus on equity considerations. She has been very fortunate to have incredible mentors who are supporting her personal and reflective work around decolonizing her own research practices.
In addition to her work with CanChild, Dr. Tomas is also an Assistant Clinical Professor (Adjunct) in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences at McMaster University and supports implementation-science related tasks with Kids Brain Health Network and The Center for Implementation.
Areas of Focus
Implementation science; equity, diversity, and inclusion in implementation and research; child health and development; community- and family-engaged research; F-words for Child Development and strengths-based approaches; knowledge mobilization